VOA Covers G-20 Summit

Washington, D.C., November 14, 2008 - With the world's economy in crisis, the Voice of America (VOA) is providing in-depth coverage of this weekend's G-20 Summit, including live radio and television broadcasts and special reports on www.VOANews.com.

Reporters from VOA's 45 language services will carry stories about the summit involving talks among leaders of 19 countries and the European Union. Broadcasters from the Dari, English, Hindi, Indonesian, Mandarin, Pashto, Persian, Russian, Turkish and Urdu services are among those providing on-the-scene reports from the National Building Museum, a few blocks from VOA's Washington headquarters.

"Our worldwide audience is very interested in the outcome of the G-20 meeting and how that outcome will affect their lives," said VOA Director Danforth Austin. "The ripple effect of the financial crisis across the world is having some very serious consequences."

VOA Hindi, for example, will air live television reports to Zee News, including stories about Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, one of the attendees.

"Since the summit is being held in Washington, D.C., we are in an excellent position to report on the goals of the G-20 and any decision that they make as well as on the goals of the Bush administration," said VOA Executive Director Steve Redisch.

The Voice of America, which first went on the air in 1942, is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. VOA broadcasts approximately 1,500 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of more than 134 million people. Programs are produced in 45 languages.

For more information, call VOA Public Relations at (202) 203-4959, or e-mail askvoa@voanews.com.